Pikemen don't carry pikes, unless they are in Phalanx formation?

[PurpleScotch]

Hey TWC, I haven't posted here in a very, very long time due to real-life events, today I decided to change that.

Anyways, back to the topic. I noticed that when I have pikemen in my army, they always carry swords, unless I put them in phalanx formation. Once that happens, pikes appear out of nowhere, then if I disable the formation, the pikes dissappear again. This has negative effects on immersion for me.

Is this only with me? A bug? Or a design choice? What are your thoughts?

EDIT: Forgive me if this has already been addressed, I searched everywhere and couldn't find anything on the issue.

[Hresvelgr]

It's a design choice. Personally, I think phalanx should be the default for them, but pikemen in real life were often expected to drop the pikes when attacking cities or going through rough terrain.

[PurpleScotch]

Ah that's a shame. I always loved watching thousands of pikemen march into battle with their sarrissas, even when not in phalanx. The old system I feel worked better though, you could still use them as swordsmen in Rome I. Can this be fixed/modded somehow?

[VektorT]

Yeah... is awful...

Even in the previous Rome they carry the pikes when not in phalanx and it only dissapear, due technical limitations, when engaged in close combat melee. Also it simple bizarre how fast they enter and quit the phalanx formation... kill a great part of the immersion, yes. I remember how cool it was to see the phalanx marching with the pikes pointing at the sky...

It would be awesome if the had to drop the sarrisas to engage in close combat melee and could take it back later. Just like horsemans can do with their horses.

[the_mango55]

There's a mod that makes phalanx enabled by default.

I remember in RTW modders had to remove swords from pike units because they would refuse to use their pikes if they got the slightest bit out of formation.

[PurpleScotch]

Yeah... is awful...

Even in the previous Rome they carry the pikes when not in phalanx and it only dissapear, due technical limitations, when engaged in close combat melee. Also it simple bizarre how fast they enter and quit the phalanx formation... kill a great part of the immersion, yes. I remember how cool it was to see the phalanx marching with the pikes pointing at the sky...

It would be awesome if the had to drop the sarrisas to engage in close combat melee and could take it back later. Just like horsemans can do with their horses.

You pretty much sum up my thoughts on this. Was watching the Battle of Guagamela from Alexander today, and watching all those pike units marching with their pikes was so epic, this really needs to be added back, even M2TW and ETW pike units carried their pikes when not in pike formation.

There's a mod that makes phalanx enabled by default.

I remember in RTW modders had to remove swords from pike units because they would refuse to use their pikes if they got the slightest bit out of formation.

Does this mod keep the pikes when out of formation? I don't see why that was hard to add, watching my Macedonian armies with no sarrissas was dissapointing, especially because the game's actually becoming quite good with all the mods coming out.

[ShadowMassa]

Agreed, the pike should be default, Kopis second. In fact, where does the pike go when the unit selects the kopis ? There should be a drop animation, sorta like when you mount and dismount a horse or drop a siege weapon. there should be an animation when the kopis is selected the pike is dropped to the ground, reselect the pike the unit shoult run back to it's back, ect.

[PurpleScotch]

I would love a feature like that, but I'll even settle with Rome I's concept. The battle of Raphia seemed odd without the pikes, felt like a "regular" non-hellenic battle until the formations were engaged.

[Fazotronic]

i always trigger the phalanx right away and you have the pikes than all the time. its just a button you have to click at the start. sure they could be default but not a big deal.

[Modestus]

God almighty why would you even do that, but just to make sure I am not misunderstanding in phalanx formation the pikes appear and point forward, no formation and the pikes dissappear.

Does that mean then unless you have a unit in formation you may have to go looking for it rather then seeing clearly that its a pike unit.

[Modestus]

God almighty why would you even do that, but just to make sure I am not misunderstanding in phalanx formation the pikes appear and point forward, no formation and the pikes dissappear.

Does that mean then unless you have a unit in formation you may have to go looking for it rather then seeing clearly that its a pike unit.

[jtfjtfjtf]

I think pikes should be like horses. You either have the pikes or you don't. If you drop the pikes you can run around with swords and shields.

[Jedi]

There's a mod that makes phalanx enabled by default.

I remember in RTW modders had to remove swords from pike units because they would refuse to use their pikes if they got the slightest bit out of formation.

It has been a long time since i delved into descr_unit.txt but i think it was basically line 1 was primary weapon pike and line two was secondary so you basically pasted in no secondary weapon in line two.For literally a minute's work you took scottish pikemen in kingdoms from pikemen who dropped the pike at the first sign of an englishman to the historically accurate hedgerow of spears.


But not marching with them? Oh god the horror....


And they claimed this was the most moddable totalwar ever pff if this was Rome I we could of pasted you the line of code and away you went.

[Kinjo]

I'm not sure why CA made pikemen's default weapon swords, I have been just running over pikemen with cavalry my entire Parthian campaign which is pretty sad. CA needs to fix this because it is making the Ai Greek armies too easy to kill.

[Choki]

It should be like Rome 1

[PurpleScotch]

I see I'm not the only one bothered by this.

As Modestus said, I'd also like to know the unit I'm facing are pikemen without having to hover my mouse all over the enemy army looking for the pike units. It also removes the grandeur of owning a phalangite army.

been a long time since i delved into descr_unit.txt

Haha, I miss the modding Rome 1.
Didn't give warscape a chance yet, but I'm thinking of restarting my interest in modding Total War.

[BroskiDerpman]

There's a mod that makes phalanx enabled by default.

I remember in RTW modders had to remove swords from pike units because they would refuse to use their pikes if they got the slightest bit out of formation.

Sorry if TWC doesn't format the post and blobs up all my spaced lines but anyways; Wrong game, that was for Medieval 2. Rome 1's pikemen were epic and do 180 sweeps. They also kept their pikes even when an enemy was right in front of them usually until they get hit, then they switch to swords which is quite weird.

Rome 2's seems somewhat more authentic but still really weird.

[Jedi]

I see I'm not the only one bothered by this.

As Modestus said, I'd also like to know the unit I'm facing are pikemen without having to hover my mouse all over the enemy army looking for the pike units. It also removes the grandeur of owning a phalangite army.

Haha, I miss the modding Rome 1.
Didn't give warscape a chance yet, but I'm thinking of restarting my interest in modding Total War.

Hmm old but gold i guess? Anyways if you do i still remember most of my phalanx mod.You need to first remove all secondary weapons,two change formation to around 15 deep if using 240 unit sizes otherwise just make it a perfect square with depth.Then you want to take a look at the mass value (will be 1.2 i think) up it to 1.3 or 1.4 based on preference.

You might need to alter cav mass value to balance but it should be .1 above any other infantry to simulate the rolling phalanx effect.I think i tended to give them mass in favour of attack values to get this effect but it can result in sliding men if over done.Personally you could spend an hour or more on this value between inf horses to get it looking right.Thinking about it for a minute i dont think rome had too much of a sliding men when pushed side effect like the later games but i would actually consider keeping default mass value of 1.2 for that phalanx and just lower everything else to 1.1.That should give you a fantastic experience with pikes and slow moving battles.


Pity i cant be bothered to buy this game i was looking forward to doing a mass mod

[Riekopo]

Just another bad design choice

[Xanthippus of Sparta]

Yea, the RTW I phalanx was so much better. Not perfect, but better.

The enter phalanx function made more sense, and I liked how phalanxes were larger units than most other infantry (240 men on largest scale), but with weaker stats.